Lost system disk space after failed backup attempt
We have a Synology NAS server that I have been backup up our two Windows systems to using True Image 2016 for months now. About a month ago my wife loaded True Image for Mac (2015 version) on her Macbook. Her first backup to the Synology worked like a charm. But this week when I was looking at the Synology, I noticed that that was her only backup. So I got onto her Mac to look around. The Synology NAS shared folder was mapped. So I brought up Acronis and told it to back up now. I watched for a while, and then left the Mac alone for a couple of hours once I saw progress had made it to 3%, figuring the backup would take a while.
When I came back later to check on it, the backup failed with an error that said you shouldn't try to back up a device onto itself. My wife needed the Mac back before I could figure out what happened. When she started using it she said she couldn't save files. Looking further, here disk appeared to be full based on About this Mac->Storage. She has a 500GB hard drive, and "other" was showing as 408GB. When I went to Finder, I could see the Synology share and the shared folders, but when I click on any of them I got an error that was something like "the original item could not be found".
She is running OSX El Capitan v10.11.2, btw.
So I surmised that the network connection to the Synology was sort of "half up", or maybe I was just seeing cached results in Finder. I tried disconnecting the share and reconnecting, but has the same behavior. But that's not what this post is about, that's another problem I have to figure out. It's the full disk thing that is killing me now.
I chatted with Apple Support, and the tech had me reindex Macintosh HD with Spotlight. After many hours of execution, this didn't seem to do anything regarding the free space problem, nor did it reveal any huge files.
I asked the tech if it was possible for there to be hidden files on a Mac, and he said "no" (?). After finishing the chat with him, I googled hidden files, and found he was wrong. I found instructions on how to display hidden files and directories in Finder using a Terminal command, and I still was not able to see anything huge.
I also removed Acronis entirely, including removing all directories and files it had. Still no space returned.
Can anyone suggest what happened, and how I can recover the approximately 400GB of free space I "lost"? I am being accused of ruining her Mac because I had her put Acronis on it. Things are ugly here and I don't know what to do. I figured I'd post here before taking a trip to the local genius bar.
Thanks in advance for your help.

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